


Dust To Dust

by uglyinternet



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Eventual Relationships, Eventual Smut, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, Gentle Negan, Heavy Angst, Out of Character Negan, Rescue, Sexual Content, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-24
Updated: 2016-10-24
Packaged: 2018-08-24 12:37:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8372533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/uglyinternet/pseuds/uglyinternet
Summary: "I'm a piece of dog shit. You deserve better than me." Negan cursed frustrated. Frustrated with her, frustrated with himself. How could she love a man like him, love in a world like this. How could he have allowed himself to get caught up in her. How fucking stupid could he be. 
—
Zaya knew what kind of man Negan was, all of the things he had done, what this world turned him into.
But she didn't see the big bad wolf that everyone was afraid of. Or maybe she just blinded herself enough to not see it. Maybe him saving her from a swarm of walkers that day blinded her from seeing the bad in every cruel act and punishment he gave. Maybe his eyes and smile fooled her. Maybe she fooled herself.
After all the devil was once an angel.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Negan will be a bit, if not a lot, out of character in this story. Just a warning. I hope you enjoy!

Zaya hated being out here. She always has. It wasn't just the constant fear of being bitten or shredded apart by the dead that made her hate it, it was the trudging along the unknown woods with a dozen bugs biting at you, having to look behind your back every ten seconds, having to worry about running into a bad group of people and the anticipation as to what you were going to stumble upon next, where you were going to end up, where this life, or journey, was taking you. She hated all of it. Even before the impending apocalypse she hated the thought of venturing out into the wilderness.

Where most people loved going on nature hikes to enjoy the beauty of nature and wild animals, Zaya did not. Even before the world was as dangerous as it is now she always had a fear of the woods. They made her feel too alone, not calm, like she had to look over her shoulder all of the time or put on ten pounds of bug spray so she wouldn't have to be bitten up by mosquitoes. But her fear for it now was worse. Even with two people she trusted and felt safe with beside her, guns at the ready and knives in there back pockets just in case, she still did not feel safe or calm as they trudged through the woods looking for a place to hold up for the night.

They had been out combing the woods for what felt like days. They hadn't found a steady place to call home, if you could ever do that in this shitty world. The only luck they had was a couple of run down cabins that eventually got bombarded with walkers. The hope finding something somewhere that was actually safe was dwindling down.

"How much longer do you think until we actually find something, besides dead animals and carcasses?" Zaya exhaled leaning herself against a large tree, exhausted.

"Soon hopefully," Porter sighed wiping sweat from his forehead as pressed a water bottle to his lips taking a quick sip and then handing what was left in the bottle to Zaya.

"We aren't going to find anything, ever, if you two keep stopping for breaks." The boy ahead of them scowled. "You would think the both of you were the most out of shape assholes to walk this earth with how many times you guys stop." He shook his head waving his hands in the air dramatically as he continued to walk ahead of them.

Porter smiled and pressed a small kiss to Zaya's lips, lacing their fingers together and pulling her in the direction of the still complaining boy ahead of them, "Come on, before his panties get even more in a bunch."

The only moments Zaya felt completely safe in this unsafe world was when she was with Porter. He was her protecter and she owed her life to him. She thanked whatever almighty waited them everyday for him being there by her side to protect her.

"Guys!" The boy ahead hollered behind to the two, his hands waving in the direction ahead of him as he broke into a run.

"Come on," Porter squeezed Zaya's hand before releasing it and running ahead.

Zaya took a few long breaths before she copied his action breaking out into a sprint until she caught up to them, her breath coming out in hot puffs. They had ran through a clearing in the woods that lead them onto a paved lot with three or four metal storage bins sat beside each other, surrounded by abandoned cars with wooden spikes stuck from them.

"This is what you made us run for?" Porter heaved bending over as he tried to catch his breath.

"Yes!" The boy raved as if they just hit the jackpot. "If we can open one of those up there could be all sorts of stuff we can use in there, we could even hide out in there."

"And how do you expect us to break those locks?"

"With this," The boy grinned as he pulled his pack over his head and onto the pavement, pulling out a small axe from inside.

Zaya and Porters eyes met wearily.

"Anything could be in there, I don't think we should do this." Zaya spoke nervously. Her eyes moving in every direction.

"And stuff that could help us is anything right?" The boy ignored her objections and weary looks from the both of them and walked to the storage bin raising his ax and hitting the lock once, twice, three times.

Zaya watched from a distance flinching each time the ax came down, the loud noise ringing through her ears making her whirl her head around in every direction to make sure no walkers were following the noise and heading right to them. Her heartbeat speeding up as she watched the lock begin to give away a little more each time the ax hit it. The tenth hit doing the job and making it clatter to the ground in two pieces.

Porter looked to the boy and then to Zaya grinning and everything after that moving in slow motion;

The boy fell to the ground as the bin door swung open and a dozen walker fell onto the ground before them making quick note to grab onto anything close to them, biting, gurgling, reaching for whatever part of the boy they could grab onto. The boy kicking and screaming as he stumbled to his feet.

Zaya couldn't move as she watched a dozen more stumble out from the bin heading straight towards her. She was frozen with fear and if it wasn't for the hard grip on her arm pulling her in the other direction she would of been in the walkers grips.

"Zaya come on!" Porter screamed as he dragged to the furthest storage bin. "Come here, quickly." He grabbed the her hips hoisting her up as much as he could, Zaya reaching up with her hands to grab the edge of the bin and pull herself up with shaking hands and weak arms. She swung her leg around to the top of the bin giving her more leverage to pull herself up, rolling herself onto the top.

"Give me your hand!" She reached for the boys hand as he tried to jump and catch the top of the bin with his fingers but failing. "Porter help him!" Zaya yelled down as the boy continued to struggle.

"I cant!"

Zaya looked up to see Porter yards from them his gun aimed and taking down the on coming herd of walkers headed straight towards him.

"Zaya! Help me!" The boy below her hollered banging his fists on the metal to get her attention back to him.

Zaya lay on her belly hoping it would give her more leverage to pull the boy up. She reached her hand out to him and with one quick jump he had hold of it and she began to pull, trying to pull him up as best she could. Letting out a painful howl as her muscles in her arm began to stretched and pull, taking on too much weight, she couldn't hold him, her arm threatening to come out of its socket. He weighed a lot more than she did and her arms were weak, she was weak and before Zaya could register that her body was slipping off of the storage bin, being pulled down by his weight, she fell to the pavement landing on her arm and her head colliding with the hard pavement.

Everything went black for a few seconds and when Zaya opened her eyes all she could see was the boy she was just trying to save being torn apart in front of her, the blood curdling screams he let out as his bloodied hand reached out to her as if she could do something to help him.

She let out a loud cry, "Porter!" She tried to stand but fell back to her side. "Help me!" She turned in the direction she last saw him, letting out another loud cry as he was running in the other direction away from her, away from the walkers, looking back to Zaya before he disappeared into the woods.

"No, no, no, come back!" She cried. "Come back!" But she knew he wasn't coming back, he had left her to die like the boy before her. She was going to die. She knew she was going to die.

She reached with her uninjured hand to her boot pulling out a small pocket knife holding it in front of her as walkers walked past the feeding frenzy of her dead friend and in her direction. Her hand shaking, her tears making her vision blurry, she wasn't strong enough to take on one walker let alone a dozen of them. This was her end. This was how she was going to go. She accepted it as she shield her face with her arms, expecting to feel the pain of teeth and nails digging into her flesh but instead gun shots rang in her ears and bullets flew off the bin behind her. One nicking her in her arm causing her to let out a loud howl.

Zaya stayed in that position until the groaning and gurgling and guns stopped. She slowly pulled back her arms from her face and found herself looking up into a pair of brown eyes.

"Well lookie here boys, looks like we saved ourselves a fucking damsel in distress." A sly smirk spreading across the mans lips.


End file.
